[Freetype] Rendering without AA at small sizes

[Ciprian Popovici]

Hello. I've got a question and please don't be too harsh on me if I happen
to be talking nonsense.

I'm using a fontconfig+freetype2+xft setup, all fairly recent versions
compiled from source. The freetype library has the bytecode interpreter
enabled. The system is pretty much compiled from source, so there is also
a freetype1 library in the system but it does not interfere with the above-
mentioned setup. I don't use xfs, I define the font paths directly in the
X configuration.

My issue: AA is nice; however, sometimes I wish I could turn it off for
small font sizes and only enable it for bold and fonts over a certain size.

To do this I've configured fontconfig for antialias=false,hinting=true,
autohint=false. It's getting where I want it, but not quite. The very
small font sizes (below 10 or 9) are, well, ugly.

I guess what puzzles me is the difference in non-AA rendering between
freetype2 and freetype1. Fonts appearing without AA in GTK+1 applications
look a great deal better than non-AA fonts in GTK+2 applications, for
instance. It's not just the small fonts, there are mishaps even at bigger
sizes. The fonts are the same in both cases and I've tried to use only
quality (mostly TTF) fonts.

So, what gives?

-- 
Ciprian Popovici